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>If I must analyze it further, I get the impression that Bernini is being >very cynical: Theresa's mystical experience is just theatre; the church >is just theatre. So in the end, the mystical vanishes and all that >remains for me is erotic. Sorry, but this fish won't nibble on that >bait. >mark Goodness. for a string with such a hi-falutin title, this one has sure been mucking about on the low road. Alas, Professor Pippin Micheli of the art department of StOlof's college has seen fit to hid her light under a bushel basket viz-a-viz this list for the present (for reasons unrelated to the quality of the postings), but her interesting post to this question --which, curiously, was recently raised on the medart list-- might help raise the tenor of things, just a whee bit. i quote from the medart list's archives: >>... She also found Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa entirely too erotic for a church setting. >Put her onto John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul - he'll explain the erotic aspect. Have her read St Theresa's own description of the experience - that'll show the erotic aspect. Tell her everyone has noticed the erotic similarities, ever since it was unveiled. I remember Robert Hughes quoting some French courtier at the unveiling, who said, "if that's the Beatific Vision, I know it well!" >I think this is where scenes like the various Rapes - Europa, Danae, Io, Ganymede, Daughters of Leucippus, Daphne, Persephone - are going. Very un-PC to say it, but rape in the Baroque period and a little before it, seems to have been a metaphor for divine rapture. >Is the student protestant or catholic? My Lutheran students have in the past demonstrated a strong dislike and disapproval of the idea of an overwhelming God. >Interesting topic. >Pippin >Pippin Michelli, Ph.D >Assistant Professor of Art History, St Olaf College http://www.stolaf.edu/people/michelli/index4.html Being considerably more mundane in my own associations, and in keeping with the theatrical motif, i am put in mind of the scene in a 90's movie wherein a particularly nubile hollywooditess demonstrates her ability to "fake it" to a potenial lover --in a public restaurant full of people who are all eventually drawn into the ongoing spectacle of the young lady's crechendoing pantings and moanings. at the end of the demonstration (which of course she is able to turn off abruptly), a stoutish matron at a nearby table is asked by her waitron unit for her own order. With perfect timing, "I'll have what she's having," she says, nodding to the starlette's table. intersting scene. Best to all from here, christopher ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%